How in the world is a middle-income family supposed to pay for childcare? No matter how I arrange the numbers, it always comes down to either eating, or paying for daycare. We make "too much" money to qualify for state-funded daycare or assistance programs, and the cheap daycare centers are scary!
So far we've resorted to juggling family members and the occasional unlicensed nanny, but that juggling act causes no end of stress. And now that both Johnny and I's schedules have changed, the availability of the sitters we did have doesn't match our current needs.
I'd love to do some sort of childcare exchange, but I work so many hours it's hardly plausible, I feel awful always asking a friend to watch Caelan for free, and I feel even worse about the pitiful amount of money I'm able to offer even an occasional babysitter.
Waking up every night from the same nanny nightmare is no fun at all.
Until I find a solution....
Liz
PS ~ Christina McGee! Get your rear in gear and move back to Washington!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Pretty, Pretty Pictures
Finally put some of Caelan's photos in frames today. Went to hang them up and discovered that there are no hanging apparatus on these particular frames... So now I just have stacks of framed photos on my table. Not enough surfaces to place them all, so I think I'll be purchasing some museum putty or something to that effect.
If you are looking to get photos taken of your little one or family, I highly recommend Deb Rumpza Photography. (Email me for contact info.) The day of the shoot, Caelan was extra contrary. She didn't want to wear the outfits I brought, she didn't want to smile, she didn't want to hold the green parasol, she didn't want me to do her hair, and on and on. Deb managed to capture every bit of attitude and nuanced expression; her photos are a perfect snapshot of Caelan, and she got her to smile! I cannot wait to have her do some family portraits. These are a few of my favorites, but it is hard to choose, they all are amazing!
More tomorrow :)
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Salted Caramel Popcorn
Well I've been horridly neglectful of my blog lately, but I'm turning over a new leaf. Once a day, new habit to form :)
In a sort of reverse honor of the "Game on" inspiration for my new habit, here is my newly developed Salted Caramel Popcorn recipe.
Ingredients:
8oz Real Butter
1.5lbs Light Brown Sugar
1/4 cup 2% Milk
1-3.5oz bag Microwave Popcorn, your favorite variety will do
Sea Salt
Butter a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt, set aside. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add brown sugar and bring to a boil. While waiting for it to come to a boil, pop corn, and put off to the side in a large bowl. Once butter and sugar mixture is boiling, add milk. Boil until caramel hits soft ball stage. Mixing after each addition, pour caramel over popcorn in small amounts until all popcorn is evenly coated. Spread popcorn over buttered and salted parchment paper in a thin, even layer. Let come to room temperature and ENJOY!
Another installment coming tomorrow :)
In a sort of reverse honor of the "Game on" inspiration for my new habit, here is my newly developed Salted Caramel Popcorn recipe.
Ingredients:
8oz Real Butter
1.5lbs Light Brown Sugar
1/4 cup 2% Milk
1-3.5oz bag Microwave Popcorn, your favorite variety will do
Sea Salt
Butter a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with sea salt, set aside. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add brown sugar and bring to a boil. While waiting for it to come to a boil, pop corn, and put off to the side in a large bowl. Once butter and sugar mixture is boiling, add milk. Boil until caramel hits soft ball stage. Mixing after each addition, pour caramel over popcorn in small amounts until all popcorn is evenly coated. Spread popcorn over buttered and salted parchment paper in a thin, even layer. Let come to room temperature and ENJOY!
Another installment coming tomorrow :)
Friday, March 5, 2010
Frugal Papercrafting
Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably have felt the effects of the down economy this past year. And if you scrapbook, make cards or other papercrafts, you KNOW what an expensive hobby it can be! It can be overwhelming to walk into a craft store on a budget and try to walk out with everything you need for your project without breaking that budget.
Here is a recipe for a 12x12 twenty page scrapbook album that is so gorgeous, no one will believe you only spent $20!!
Supplies:"Claire"* 12x12 Paper Pad (24pgs) $9.99"Claire"* Designer Brads $3.99"Claire"* Diecut Designs $2.995 sheets Gray Cardstock $1.255 sheets Cream Cardstock $1.251 sheet Chocolate Cardstock $0.25TOTAL $19.72
Now I'm assuming that you already own adhesive, a paper trimmer, and archival pens, so their cost isn't figured in to the above supplies, but you will need them to make this project!
Buying supplies that are specifically created to coordinate will save you time and money. How often have you come home from the craft store with what you thought were the perfect red rhinestones, only to discover that they are three shades different from your cardstock? When you buy products from the same line, you are guaranteed they will compliment each other.
The trick to using only the above supplies to create the following beautiful twenty pages is to cut frugally and SAVE your scraps! I essentially used every square inch of each piece of paper by the time I was finished.
Take a look at the slide show below; all twenty pages created for ONLY $20!
*"Claire" is one of SEI's current paper lines. If you are interested in purchasing the products depicted or any other SEI products, please let me know!
~ Liz
Monday, December 22, 2008
Snowy Photos
Here are some photos of my little goofball and her first time in the snow:
And this one couldn't be ignored either, the little Christmas elf:
And this one couldn't be ignored either, the little Christmas elf:
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Coveting for Christmas...
So really, I'm not all about the gifts for Christmas. I like to make the gifts I give when I can, and don't like buying pointless "wants" for others. However, I have found a few things recently that I may be coveting, just a bit.
Fire Engine Red is my favorite color, but Oranges of all shades come a close second, so I may actually have drooled a bit when I came across this gorgeous Ginger Twisted Scarf by the fabulous female of UrbanKnit. She's based in London, so we have a passing "tweet" acquaintance. And I truly mean *passing.* As I'm heading off to bed and bidding all "good night," she hops online and says "morning!" And so we have short little chats about what have you, and I go into her shop and fall in love with all of the beautiful knits she creates. Take a look: http://www.urbanknit.etsy.com
Since we've been accumulating snow at record rates over the last week, I have begun to realize that I am severely lacking in the area of my closet dedicated to warm coats, sweaters and such. This discovery prompted me to find not only the gorgeous scarf above, but also this incredible, classic redingote. Vigilante Labs creates some fantastic clothes, some that appeal to the superhero in us all, and each and every piece is absolutely artful! This coat though, now this I could flaunt:
Check out Vigilante Labs other amazing, unique work at: http://www.vigilantelabs.etsy.com
And then there are Jenifer Glagowski's Cairn Pendants. I want one, (or two!), in every color! I'm not entirely sure what it is about these pendants that I just adore, but they appeal to the outdoorsy, primitive girl inside of me, who only comes out occasionally. Many of my best memories from highschool involve a crazy, cold, injurious, did I say crazy? backpacking trip. We came across many cairns during the trip, and though remniscient, Jenifer's pendants are by far the more fabulous! You can see them all at: http://www.jeniferglagowski.etsy.com
That's all for the moment, I'll post snow pictures tomorrow. For now, it's time for me to go finish Christmas gifts! I only have two more days!
~ Liz
Fire Engine Red is my favorite color, but Oranges of all shades come a close second, so I may actually have drooled a bit when I came across this gorgeous Ginger Twisted Scarf by the fabulous female of UrbanKnit. She's based in London, so we have a passing "tweet" acquaintance. And I truly mean *passing.* As I'm heading off to bed and bidding all "good night," she hops online and says "morning!" And so we have short little chats about what have you, and I go into her shop and fall in love with all of the beautiful knits she creates. Take a look: http://www.urbanknit.etsy.com
Since we've been accumulating snow at record rates over the last week, I have begun to realize that I am severely lacking in the area of my closet dedicated to warm coats, sweaters and such. This discovery prompted me to find not only the gorgeous scarf above, but also this incredible, classic redingote. Vigilante Labs creates some fantastic clothes, some that appeal to the superhero in us all, and each and every piece is absolutely artful! This coat though, now this I could flaunt:
Check out Vigilante Labs other amazing, unique work at: http://www.vigilantelabs.etsy.com
And then there are Jenifer Glagowski's Cairn Pendants. I want one, (or two!), in every color! I'm not entirely sure what it is about these pendants that I just adore, but they appeal to the outdoorsy, primitive girl inside of me, who only comes out occasionally. Many of my best memories from highschool involve a crazy, cold, injurious, did I say crazy? backpacking trip. We came across many cairns during the trip, and though remniscient, Jenifer's pendants are by far the more fabulous! You can see them all at: http://www.jeniferglagowski.etsy.com
That's all for the moment, I'll post snow pictures tomorrow. For now, it's time for me to go finish Christmas gifts! I only have two more days!~ Liz
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A bit of randomness
Ingrid Michaelsson is an incredible performer! My best friend and I went to her concert on Monday, and had an amazing time :) She truly knows how to flow with and connect with her crowd, taking a few requests, involving people in announcing the next song, having a bit of a sing-along; it was great! She has such a beautiful voice, you should go listen to her: http://www.ingridmichaelson.com
I swear my cell phone bill keeps getting higher and higher even though we haven't added any services or gone over our minutes at all. Joys of an economic downturn...
My first show was a small success. The show itself was not something I will ever do again, as it was poorly organized, even more poorly advertised and although full of wonderfully nice people, I don't think more than 60 people walked through the booths who were not also selling a product at the fair. Hardly worth the time and effort, although I did make a few sales and made a few new connections. Hopefully the next one will be a better use of my time.
~Liz
I swear my cell phone bill keeps getting higher and higher even though we haven't added any services or gone over our minutes at all. Joys of an economic downturn...
My first show was a small success. The show itself was not something I will ever do again, as it was poorly organized, even more poorly advertised and although full of wonderfully nice people, I don't think more than 60 people walked through the booths who were not also selling a product at the fair. Hardly worth the time and effort, although I did make a few sales and made a few new connections. Hopefully the next one will be a better use of my time.
~Liz
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Onto the Show...
After a distinct lack of communication, I am actually participating in a craft show today! I'm excited/nervous, hoping I don't have enough product made :), and wishing I would have some help. Cross your fingers that there is actually a decent amount of traffic, and that people are actually buying! I'll post pictures afterwards.
~Liz
~Liz
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
It's really fall now...
The weather finally cooperated here in Washington, and we had a beautiful fall day! It was that perfect moment, when all of the deciduous trees are incredible colors, but haven't quite begun to drop their leaves, the sun is bright, there is a crisp breeze and it's just cold enough to require a sweater. In honor of the "beginning" of fall, here is a fall layout! If you want the kit to create this layout, it's $5 and includes everything to make this layout plus 2 A7 cards.
We took my 9month old out trick-or-treating on Main St. in one of the local towns for less than an hour, but it only took her 12 minutes to polish off a blue raspberry dumdum :) Had to fight her for the stick when it was all gone! She was going to be a hippo, but I never got around to ordering the costume since we thought her Johnny was going to be working, so instead she wore her Seahawks cheerleader outfit complete with pompoms. Not that her adorable "cheerleading" has helped at all this season... What a dismal showing by our hawks. But hey, there's always next year, right? Of course, Johnny keeps tell me that they could make a comeback if they win such and such game and so and so doesn't get injured again, etc. Personally, I think it is hopeless, we need to chalk it up to experience and try again next season :) Here she is working on slobbering that sucker to death:
And hey, way to go Obama... Did anyone else think that Mr. Jackson might not have been crying just tears of happiness? Maybe a little jealousy.... He did try it himself, twice :) Just a little tongue-in-cheek! Now we have four years to see if any of the "change" he promised comes to bear. He has a lot of promises to live up to, and I for one, hope he can manage it. I did have to chuckle though, the networks were scrambling for anything to fill in the several hours they still had reserved for watching and waiting for polls when McCain conceeded the victory. Not in my memory has the president elect been declared before the midwest is counted! :) Have to love it.
Night all!
~Liz
We took my 9month old out trick-or-treating on Main St. in one of the local towns for less than an hour, but it only took her 12 minutes to polish off a blue raspberry dumdum :) Had to fight her for the stick when it was all gone! She was going to be a hippo, but I never got around to ordering the costume since we thought her Johnny was going to be working, so instead she wore her Seahawks cheerleader outfit complete with pompoms. Not that her adorable "cheerleading" has helped at all this season... What a dismal showing by our hawks. But hey, there's always next year, right? Of course, Johnny keeps tell me that they could make a comeback if they win such and such game and so and so doesn't get injured again, etc. Personally, I think it is hopeless, we need to chalk it up to experience and try again next season :) Here she is working on slobbering that sucker to death:
And hey, way to go Obama... Did anyone else think that Mr. Jackson might not have been crying just tears of happiness? Maybe a little jealousy.... He did try it himself, twice :) Just a little tongue-in-cheek! Now we have four years to see if any of the "change" he promised comes to bear. He has a lot of promises to live up to, and I for one, hope he can manage it. I did have to chuckle though, the networks were scrambling for anything to fill in the several hours they still had reserved for watching and waiting for polls when McCain conceeded the victory. Not in my memory has the president elect been declared before the midwest is counted! :) Have to love it.
Night all!
~Liz
Shows
I'm getting excited, and nervous, about the upcoming craft shows I will be participating in. Trying to build up my inventory so I have enough of everything is getting overwhelming.
I just keep hoping it will be worth it; I want to sell out, or come close, and end the day having made some money. I need a little affirmation as to the fact that I can actually make this whole business venture profitable. In my brain, I know I can. I have the creativity and the knowledge to make it all work, but an emotional part of me is doubtful. Hopefully my drive to be able to stay at home with my daughter will make it happen!
I'll post new pictures of product later today.
~Liz
I just keep hoping it will be worth it; I want to sell out, or come close, and end the day having made some money. I need a little affirmation as to the fact that I can actually make this whole business venture profitable. In my brain, I know I can. I have the creativity and the knowledge to make it all work, but an emotional part of me is doubtful. Hopefully my drive to be able to stay at home with my daughter will make it happen!
I'll post new pictures of product later today.
~Liz
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